Scripture Reflections for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year A, Lectionary 64
God has a plan. We are part of God's plan. We have a purpose, to live out God's plan and carry out God's mission here on earth. Jesus understood his role as God's servant, as the Lamb of God, living out God's sacrificial love to all. Jesus lived out this mission that even John the Baptist was able to notice. Are others able to see us spreading God's sacrificial love?
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Baptism • Blessing • Called • Chosen • Church • Communion • Community • Complacent • Covenant • Creation • Desert • Direct • Disciple • Divine • Dove • Ego • Engage • Expansive • Faith • Gather • Healing • Hold • Holy • Holy Spirit • Hope • Humility • Identify • Identity • John the Baptist • Justice • Lamb • Lead • Light • Martin Luther King Jr. • Martyr • Mission • Mystery • Ordinary Time • Paul • Peace • Popularity • Power • Prepared • Presence • Priest • Proclaim • Prophet • Purpose • Recognize • Reflection • Repent • Revelation • Rivalry • Sacrifice • Salvation • Season • Sent • Servant • Sight • Sign • Sin • Solidarity • Suffering • Testimony • Unity • Vocation • Witness •
“For Paul the term 'saint' is his favorite way of referring to believers on earth who are living right now who have been baptized into Christ. That's all it takes for Paul, right. You are called to be a saint by virtue of your baptism and faith in Jesus Christ.”
“Like John the Baptist, we are called to gesture toward God. I use the word gesture to describe our human limitations. The incarnation is physical reality but it is also the greatest mystery, ineffable and untouchable, absolutely unpaintable.”
“Jesus, the Christ, is the person and the place who you and I must constantly practice returning to. He is the one in whom you and I are called to remain grounded in.”
“it's all nice and well and good to believe in God, but it's much better to live a life believing God is with us”
“until hearts and minds come into this light and are made to understand who we are, all of us together, then we remain asking more than proclaiming 'shall we overcome? Shall we live in peace? Shall we walk hand in hand? Shall we grow to know one another and ourselves as the children of God?'”
“So John here is revealing something very powerful about Jesus. He's manifesting the divinity of Jesus by pointing to his preexistence.”
“Jesus isn't just inaugurating a new Exodus...he's also the beginning of a new creation, right, which will bring about a new cleansing of the world from sin. And it's going to be through the waters, right, of his baptism, as we'll see, and of our baptism that sin will be dealt with and that sin will be cleansed.”
“John and Jesus although they were related, although they were cousins, would not have grown up together. Jesus grew up in Galilee as a carpenter's son but John grew up as an ascetic out in the desert.”
“Imagine all of us point out Jesus, in ourself and in somebody else. Imagine what we could do to our world. Imagine how we could heal our land if all of us would recognize the dignity each person has because she, he, whomever is God's child.”
“God comes in the most ordinary ways and so we're going to have to start looking out for him the way John the Baptist was looking out for him”
“You can't channel surf on God, amen? Or not on his Word. We got to follow that Word consistently all the way through.”
“Have you ever noticed how this light shines through the faces of people you meet? Maybe in a random stranger's face, a family member, or even a friend? We are called today more than ever to witness where the Holy Spirit is at work in others as well as ourselves.”
“There is only one who is innocent before God and John calls us to see, to look at him, to look at the face of mercy, to look to the one who alone can give us peace”
“The priest today does what John did, he directs our eyes to Jesus...The priest, like John, points him out and the people, like the disciples who heard John’s words, are invited to draw near, to follow, to enter into communion with the Lamb of God.”
“We have opportunities all day long to point out ways that Jesus is alive and working all around us”
“God calls us for a purpose. What is it? To be the Church of Christ, the body of Christ.”
“We are comfortable being called, we become uneasy when we are sent. We like faith that reassures us, but not faith that stretches us. Yet, scripture is consistent. If God calls you, God sends you.”
“a fundamental state of our being is that we're more immediately concerned about ourselves than about God, and that's our default position. So we always have to move against that and that's part of the Christian life.”
“Let us answer the Spirit's calls. Let us get up, out from our privilege and take an active stance for love.”
“Light ordinarily does not add anything to what is in existence. The light reveals what is already in existence, the beauty in creation.”
“Testimony is our call...You know how powerful that sometimes simple, authentic witness can be.”
“When people see us in the street they shouldn't have to ask who we are, they should immediately know that we are the sons and daughters of God. Or they may not know our given names but they should know at least that we know who Jesus Christ is as Lord and savior.”